Plan to build Hampton Inn in Northport gets scrapped

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 12:01 AM

NORTHPORT | The plan for a Hampton Inn & Suites that was to be built along Northport's riverfront has been scrapped. The project, as developer Todd Palmer put, is “dead in the water.” Palmer's franchise agreement with Hilton Hotels to build a Hampton Inn on the site ended officially on Jan. 3. According to Palmer, the city of Northport is to blame.

By Lydia Seabol AvantStaff Writer

NORTHPORT | The plan for a Hampton Inn & Suites that was to be built along Northport's riverfront has been scrapped.The project, as developer Todd Palmer put, is “dead in the water.” Palmer's franchise agreement with Hilton Hotels to build a Hampton Inn on the site ended officially on Jan. 3. According to Palmer, the city of Northport is to blame. “We had a terrible time working with (city planner) Katherine Ennis and (city engineer) Charles Swann,” Palmer said. Palmer said that Swann was against the project from the beginning and that there were unfair requests made as far as zoning when Palmer requested an approved site plan for the project. The city wanted to reduce the footprint of the building, asked why the parking was in front of the hotel instead of behind and would not approve moving the hotel's entrance on one side, Palmer said. “They were nothing but delays,” Palmer said. “They were making demands not made on anyone else. It became very, very frustrating.”The 111-room hotel was originally planned to have rates between $115 to $199 a night, and about 40 percent of the rooms were to be suites. Originally planned was a 3,000-square-foot meeting space attached to the hotel, a board room and a conference room for smaller meetings, which is unusual for Hampton hotels.Palmer told the council in April 2011 that Memphis, Tenn.-based McMurry Construction Co., had been chosen for the project. Palmer said then that construction would begin by July 2011 and that the hotel would take about a year to complete.But the project never broke ground. In 2012, Palmer tried to reduce the size of the proposed hotel, bringing the meeting space inside the footprint of the hotel building, and reducing its size by 40 percent, and bringing the number of hotel rooms down to 90. “We had multiple meetings (with the city), and each meeting a new issue would come up,” Palmer said. Palmer had several extensions on his franchise agreement with Hilton, which owns the Hampton Inn brand. Finally, about two months ago, Hilton asked if another extension was needed, at the cost of about $10,000. Palmer said he decided to cancel the project because he felt the city would never allow it to come to fruition.But Northport City Administrator Scott Collins said the city did everything it could to make the hotel happen.“It's not uncommon for developers, city planners and city engineers to have differing concerns for any project,” Collins said. “Knowing that, we will continue to work and exhaust every effort in insuring that any developer who wants to move forward in the city of Northport is afforded only professional service and professional partnerships with city staff.”If built, the hotel would have been at the end of Main Avenue in downtown Northport on what used to be a riverfront gin site. The old gin site was originally city-owned land that Northport obtained when it built a levee in the 1990s. The 2004-2008 city council sold the property to Stonegate Properties in 2007 for $239,000, along with a contract that gave Stonegate first dibs on purchasing 16.9 acres of adjacent city property just west of the train trestle. Stonegate planned to develop the site for a mix of restaurants and condos, as well as a hotel, but the project never came to fruition.In 2008, Stonegate sold the riverfront site, along with the agreement, to local developers Todd Palmer and Danny Butler, who were going to build the Hampton Inn. The hotel project was not without controversy, however, with residents and some downtown merchants complaining about its design and height when it was first presented in 2010. They argued that the architecture of the hotel did not fit with the historic, small-town look of downtown Northport. But, the city did everything it could to help the development, said William Tunnell, former Northport City Council President, who had requested that Palmer meet with the council in January 2012 to give an update and presentation on the project. The meeting never happened, Tunnell said. “Nothing could be more ludicrous,” Tunnell said, referring to Palmer's claims. “As far as I am concerned, if there was something unknown to the council, Mr. Palmer never brought it to the council. If they don't bring it to the council's attention, then the developer is just as much at fault. The city of Northport did everything that they asked us to do.”Tunnell noted that in 2011, the Northport Zoning Board of Adjustments approved several variances to the city's building code that Palmer had requested, including a variance for the height of the hotel building. In January 2012, Collins said Northport had done everything it was supposed to do. The building had been approved by the city, Collins said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project near the river's levees. All that's left before work could begin was the building permit, which Collins said was never applied for. Tunnell, who served on the council from 2004-2012, said he was disappointed that the hotel is yet another failed project for the riverfront site. “I'm disappointed, but I think most logical people would understand that in these economic times, when many businesses are downsizing, it would be a very difficult task to grow during this economy,” Tunnell said. “I don't see the need to blame the city of Northport.”Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon said he was disappointed that the hotel was not going to be built. “If (Palmer) is going to blame the city of Northport, and if it was the city's fault, then we are looking to fix whatever we have to fix,” Herndon said. “We do have rules and regulations we have to follow, but if that is what killed the deal, then we need to look into those.”Northport will continue to focus on the future development of its riverfront, Collins added. “The city of Northport sees our riverfront development area as an outstanding opportunity for community growth and development, and we will continue in every way possible to enhance the growth and success of our business partners in that area.”Palmer, who owns the site, said he would still like to develop the property but has no plans to do anything for a while.Calls made to Ennis and Swann were not returned Wednesday.